CNST: Micro-LEGO Towards 3D Assembly and Nanomaterial Integration

Seok Kim, Mechanical Science and Engineering
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Reversible dry adhesion-based transfer printing provides a highly straightforward pathway to heterogeneous material integration. The speaker presents his recent research outcomes in terms of 3D heterogeneous integration accomplished in his laboratory which has been exploring responsive materials, microassembly, and nanomanufacturing technologies. The first part introduces biomimetic engineered reversible dry adhesives made of shape memory polymers. The second part shows how his reversible dry adhesives enable LEGO-like microassemly and nanomaterial integration through transfer printing techniques. Finally, the third part demonstrates the applications of his approaches with the examples not only of devices such as a microtoroid resonator, a tip-tilt-piston micromirror, and a RF MEMS switch, but also of processes such as colloidal quantum dot film patterning and integration. The strategies presented in his talk benefit research activities in smart dry adhesives, 3D MEMS, and nano devices.

Biography: Seok Kim received his B.S. from Pohang University of Science and Technology, M.S. from University of California at Los Angeles, and Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University, all in mechanical engineering, and joined the faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2011. His current research interests include biomimetic engineered surfaces for reversible dry adhesion and tunable wetting, transfer printing-based microassembly and nanomanufacturing, and 3D MEMS fabrication technologies. He was a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2014, the ASME Chao and Trigger Young Manufacturing Engineer Award in 2015, and the Young Investigator Grant Award from the Korean–American Scientists and Engineers Association in 2015.